China tests Beijing-Shanghai bullet train

BEIJING (AP) — China’s bullet train builders have conducted a test run of their showcase Beijing-to-Shanghai line amid controversy over the system’s high cost.

A train carrying railway ministry officials, managers of the companies that built the line and hundreds of reporters left Beijing on Monday morning for a five-hour trip. That is about half as long as conventional rail.

The train linking China’s capital and its main business center is part of a planned nationwide high-speed network with speeds of up to 190 mph (330 kph).

The government has reduced the speed and ticket prices of the national system following complaints it is too expensive and dangerously fast.